Monday, August 21, 2006

Tales of Symphonia
Journey
The main character in the game is Lloyd Irving, a seventeen-year-old friend of the Chosen who accompanies her on a long, dangerous journey to regenerate the world of Sylvarant. The Chosen's name is Colette Brunel. She has been friends with Lloyd and another boy named Genis Sage since they were young. Genis is very smart and claims to be an elf. It is later discovered that both Genis and his sister (and teacher), Raine Sage, are really half-elves, with mixed human and elven blood. This is relevant because half-elves are not favorably viewed in Sylvarant or other places. This is partially because an organization known as the Desians, made up of half-elves, is wreaking havoc upon Sylvarant. According to legend, this occurs when the world's mana, or life force, grows low. To solve this, the Chosen of Mana, a specially chosen human, must go on a pilgrimage to awaken the Summon Spirits of the land and unlock the path to the Tower of Salvation, where the Goddess Martel can be awoken and the land regenerated.

Complications arise during the journey. Several times, a mysterious assassin attempts to kill them. This assassin, Sheena Fujibayashi, eventually repents and joins the party. She explains that she is from Tethe'alla, a parallel universe, and that Sylvarant and Tethe'alla compete for mana. While one world flourishes, the other suffers.

Tower of Salvation
When the party reaches the Tower of Salvation, with the help of Kratos Aurion, a mysterious mercenary, the truth is revealed. The Chosen legend is really a plot by Cruxis, a group of half-elves and evolved half-elves, or angels. The two worlds were formerly one, but Yggdrasil, Cruxis's leader, split them in two. Kratos also is revealed as one of the Four Seraphim of Cruxis.

The party narrowly escapes the Tower with the help of the Renegades, an opposition group, and begins seeking to reunite the two worlds. Other characters join: Zelos Wilder, the Chosen of Tethe'alla, Presea Combatir, the mysterious victim of an Exsphere experiment, and Regal Bryant, a prisoner, and, as is later revealed, president of a massive company.

Revelation
The party eventually discovers that Yggdrasil's first name is Mithos, and that he is the same person as Mithos, the hero of the Ancient Kharlan War. Mithos was cast out of the elven village of Heimdall for being a half-elf. He, along with his sister, Martel, Yuan, a fellow half-elf, and Kratos, his human teacher, journeyed to end the war. When this was done, however, he split the world in two with the Eternal Sword, which had been given to him by Origin, king of the Summon Spirits, for the purpose of ending the war. He did this in order to separate the opposing forces that had caused the war into separate worlds. The war also had caused the deaths of the Great Kharlan Tree, planted by the elves when they came to the world in order to provide mana, and Martel. Mithos, desiring to save his sister, bound her Exsphere, which retained her consciousness, to the Great Seed of the Kharlan Tree. Along with Yuan and Kratos, he set up Cruxis to rule the two worlds, convincing them it was the best way to maintain peace.

The Church of Martel and Chosen ritual were developed in order to provide a new body for Martel. Yuan and Kratos grew disquieted with this, as it caused needless suffering through the waxing and waning of the worlds and the Desians, a sub-organization of Cruxis, that were necessary to stimulate fear in the Chosen to awaken his or her Exsphere. Also, Mithos gradually revealed his plans to transform everyone into identical beings through the use of Exspheres, in order to eliminate discrimination. Yuan secretly formed the Renegades, while Kratos begin subverting Mithos's plans under the pretense of helping carry them out.

Eventually, Mithos and his vision are defeated. Lloyd is able to use the Eternal Sword to reunite the worlds and germinate the Great Seed. Martel is freed from the Seed and her consciousness.
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